Oggi

This morning Zabeth, Paola and I weeded the entire front walkway. It's actually an elevated flower garden, iris and lavender. There are tons of flowers here, key for the bee population. We weeded until late morning, and then Sergio had a little tractor problem that required attention. He was mowing all the excess grass down on the tractor, when he ran over some unused portion of chain link fence. You can mildly imagine the dilemma. After about ten minutes of work the best course of action was take it to the barn. The next action was of course, hook the chain link to the even bigger tractor and rip said chain link out. It actually worked, until the chain link ripped, leaving the part coiled in the mower still coiled in the mower. Next step... Grinder! Cut chain link out FORCEFULLY! Worked some but not all, so then we settled ourselves to manually snipping with wire cutters. The reward? By the time we finished lunch was ready, and the chain link came out. Lunch was bacon, and eggs, in pasta! Carbonara! Instead of the usual post afternoon doldrums, we stayed alert, because we might be getting a ride to see the bike race tomorrow. Since we don't speak Italian we don't know of that's actually happening, but it's better to prepare for the best and allow for regular day. Zabeth stayed around the house and helped clean out the cantina, sometimes known as a cellar, or better yet the butcher room. I and Sergio went to fill up 15 jugs of wine for the party this Sunday. Mid way thru the filling we had to go help a friend fix his hay bailer? Sergio is a heavy machine operator as well. He got the thing fixed, and we were on our way it before somebody realized io no Capitol Italiano. Sergio told them I was American, and the guy rut away pulls out a business card from a fine cheese importer in Cambridge mass. Turns out he makes fine cheese, so he takes us into his lair and requisitions ftwo blocks of goat cheese for us to take. We go back and finish the wine, then sight see on the way home. Zabeth made dinner, which is pretty fun around here. Grab some salami, boil some pasta, or not, prenda la formaggio, and eat. Zabeth made cherry pie, a big hit! Hopefully we're going to the tour tomorrow?!